Right on schedule, less than two weeks after the iPhone 4S was released to the public, the iPad rumor mill is heating up. The latest report is that the iPad 3 is being rushed into production, in order to enter production ahead of the weeklong Chinese New Year. The story also claims that the updated tablet will have a smaller dock connector, which could cause compatibility issues with older iDevices.

The reports supposedly come from “reliable Asian sources” (Foxconn?). They say that the iPad 3 will be released in March, which is hardly surprising. It’s added that the next-gen slate will feature a 9.7 inch screen, just like its predecessors.

A smaller dock connector would certainly be a change. Every previous iOS device has had the same 30-pin connection, which can be traced back to the early (music-only) iPods. The new connector would allegedly carry the same number of pins, but would be redesigned in a smaller form factor.

January marks Chinese New Year, and the celebrations will shut down all factories from January 22-28. Apple’s Asian manufacturers are therefore supposedly already taking measures to have the iPad 3 ready by then. As the first iPad launched in early April of 2010, and the iPad 2 launched in March of this year, another March release is expected.

Retina display?

It wasn’t mentioned whether or not the iPad 3 would get a doubled pixel count, as many expect. When Apple increases the iPad’s resolution, this will almost certainly be the way that they handle it. Exactly doubling the previous generation’s pixels makes it easier on developers and guarantees that older apps will run without problems. This was how Apple handled the resolution jump to the iPhone 4’s 960 x 640, from all previous iPhones’ 480 x 320.

The anticipated 2048 x 1536 resolution is often described as being a “Retina” display. Though, by Steve Jobs’ own definition of a Retina display (“somewhere around 300ppi, the human eye can no longer differentiate between individual pixels”), this resolution would fall short, at 264ppi. Apple could, however, say that a tablet is typically held farther away from the eyes than a smartphone, and give it the title nonetheless. It’s all marketing terminology, but for the sake of consistency, it will be interesting to see how that is handled.

No matter what you call it, a 2048 x 1536 display would certainly trump any display we have seen on any tablet to this date, iPad or otherwise.